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“There’s a great line in the movie, American Gangster with Denzel Washington, the guy says, ‘quitting on top ain’t the same as quitting.’ And I was like, why do people stay until the end of their success? What’s wrong with quitting while you’re still having success, and you’re at the top of the game? And I weigh that a lot in my mind, ’cause like I say, I don’t, I’m not…. there’s zero chance I’m gonna be on TV when I’m 70. Zero.”
Chandler Parsons: 'Kobe Bryant paid me a $22,000 club bill... this dude was cool as f---'
Chandler Parsons story on Kobe Bryant: So my rookie year we're playing in Staples Center. Kevin McHale pulls me aside and tells me ‘you're gonna see crazy people, you're gonna see celebrities there and Kobe is gonna try and bust your ass, like he's gonna be offended you're guarding him.’ First of all, I'm just looking at the court side. My head’s on a swivel, I've never seen this before, right? I'm like, goddamn, this is great. Denzel Washington is there, this chick is there... I'm already distracted. And of course I'm starting on Kobe. A little side note: Jordan Hill that year had got traded from Houston to LA. So the fourth quarter comes around and Kobe looks at me and he's like, ‘are you guys staying the night tonight?’ And I'm like, making sure McHale is not looking at me and I'm like ‘yeah, what up? We’re staying.’ He goes, ‘I'll set you up. I'll get your number from Hill if you want to go out tonight’. McHale is over there grilling me like ‘stop talking to this motherf-----’. So he ends up going off, he scores like 40 that game and we lose. After the game we’re going to have dinner at the Katsuya LA Live. We’re with all the OGs, right? We're with Marcus Camby and they're all taking me out. I get a text that goes ‘You're all set at Supper Club - Mamba’. And I'm like, looking around like ‘alright, who's f------ with me?’ Like, no way. Courtney Lee was my guy and I'm like, showing him like, is this real? So I write him back. I'm like, are you coming? And he’s like ‘no, I can't make it but my guy will hit you up’. Guy texts me ‘Hey, you’re set up, let me know what you need at Supper Club’, whatever.
Chandler Parsons: So at this point, I'm like, guys, I got you. Kobe’s my guy. He set it up. Let's go! JB Bickerstaff is there. I'm bringing coaches. I'm bringing trainers. This is ‘I got it’. And we have a blast, right? We have the craziest night ever. Supper Club was the club where the tables were beds. It was awesome. It was nuts. Then 2 AM rolls around. I'm with these guys that made hundreds of millions of dollars and this waitress beelines right to me with the check. And I'm like, ‘oh shit!’... She's bringing me this bill for God knows how much and I'm like, oh man. I open it and it's like $22,000 and now at this point I'm like, physically sick. I can't do this because the card’s gonna bounce! I'll never forget it, this chick looks at me, hands me a pen and says ‘sign for Mr. Bryant’. And I'm like, what?! A made a video of the whole thing, I’m so excited. I signed ‘Kobe Bryant’ on a $22,000 club bill… This dude was cool as f—.
Like basketball fans worldwide, Eric Piatkowski watched "The Last Dance," a 10-part mini-series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. With each episode, Piatkowski was reminded of his NBA career, which spanned 14 years. The University of Nebraska graduate made his NBA debut 1994 with the Los Angeles Clippers. "My rookie year, we had the worst record in the NBA," Piatkowski said. "We were averaging about 2,500 people per game. Everyone said 'Wait until the Bulls come to town.' Every star in town is there and there are flashbulbs going off. I'm like, 'Man, this is amazing.'" Piatkowski remembers seeing several celebrities courtside for his first Bulls vs. Clippers game, including Tiger Woods, Denzel Washington, and Jack Nicholson. Piatkowski adds that prior to the game, his wife and family members were taking pictures with celebrities courtside.
The NCAA remains dependent on cheap labor to fill its buildings and fuel its championships and sell its jerseys – the ones often featuring a player’s names on the back, from which players, until now, haven’t been able to profit – and make its product compelling enough to get $10.8 billion from Turner and CBS for the tournament over 14 years. The yearly money smaller schools get from the networks through their respective conferences often represents the lion’s share of their annual athletic budgets, while the players who provide that value with their excellence at all levels get little above room and board. It’s like if Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington made blockbuster movies year after year, and were consistently rewarded with a one-bedroom off of La Cienega and vouchers at Denny’s. “Kids are tired of dealing with the NCAA,” one prominent agent said.
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The guard accrued a $25,000 fine from the NBA after "recklessly throwing the game ball into the spectator stands," the league announced Monday morning. Iguodala had his own response. In an Instagram video, Iguodala shared a scene from "He Got Game," a Spike Lee film featuring actor Denzel Washington and 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen.
Denzel Washington was the latest guest in the Lakers' "Genius Series" this week -- Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka regularly invites notable speakers in entertainment and other industries to address the team -- and his message came at a fortuitous time.
"It's great," said Lakers coach Luke Walton on Thursday. "People are frustrated and angry after those types of games, so you bring in someone like Denzel, and he talks about the things he talks about, it does a nice job of lifting spirits." Walton said the 63-year-old actor's message provided welcome perspective to his team, which is 11-9 and hosts the Indiana Pacers on Thursday.
James said Washington, who was presented with a gold No. 1 Lakers uniform with "Washington" stitched across the back of it when he met the team Wednesday, gave him an African-American role model to aspire to be like when he was growing up, much the same way Will Smith and Dave Chappelle did. "I grew up watching these guys," James said. "I grew up admiring these guys, admiring their craft, wanting to be like certain characters they portrayed either in TV shows or movies or in standup. So, that's what it all boils down to. I appreciate those guys and thank them more than they know.”
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Then, in a flash, his life in the North was upended. On July 18, the team followed up its firing of coach Dwane Casey by dealing DeRozan, big man Jakob Poeltl and a protected 2019 first-round pick for a discontented Kawhi Leonard along with Danny Green. DeRozan found out about the trade after getting out of a screening of The Equalizer 2, featuring Denzel Washington. Upon leaving the movie theater in Los Angeles late into the night, he checked his phone. "[I] was wondering why I was getting missed calls," he says. He was hungry, so he went to get something to eat at a Jack in the Box. In the parking lot, he got the call telling him he had just been traded to San Antonio. "It just caught me off guard," he says. "I sat in the Jack in the Box parking lot for, like, two hours just trying to process it all, like just trying to process the whole thing, and it just tripped me out honestly, just trying to figure it out, but that's how I found out. Midnight, sitting in the Jack in the Box parking lot for about two hours till I went home."
An apparent recruiting pitch was leaked to SI.com's Robin Lundberg and it is in form of a voiceover the Lakers plan on using with video. A person contacted to potentially audition for the voiceover was given directions that it should be "less Morgan Freeman/Denzel Washington, and more Jamie Foxx."
On Sunday, Zo popped up during Game 2 on ABC as part of a campaign promoting “The Equalizer 2.” In the ad, Ball not only auditions for Denzel Washington’s part in the sequel, but shows up with boxes upon boxes of clothing. “We’re going to need some merch for the movie. My family is like the king of the merch game,” Lonzo quips, in a clear nod to the Big Baller Brand.
But when Ray Allen squared up against Denzel Washington for the iconic final scene in 1998’s He Got Game, fate, as it were, took over. “It was supposed to be 11-0,” Allen recently told Yahoo Entertainment. The two-time NBA champ has a new autobiography out called From the Outside: My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love, and he recalled filming the Spike Lee classic, which turns 20 this year. “But when we started playing, [Denzel] started shooting the ball, and the ball was going in,” said Allen.
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